How to Prove Your Worth to Get a Job in Social Media

Because the industry is so new, social media efforts are constantly under strict scrutiny because of the questionable return on investment (ROI). So, if you plan to make your way in the social media field, you will need to be prepared to prove you are a valuable asset.

Can a brand possibly quantify the actual impressions and correlation to top‐line sales of a billboard or a magazine ad? Yes — if there are direct‐response mechanisms with this traditional advertising media — but the fact remains that traditional media doesn’t have great metrics.

Social media can measure just about anything and everything with its digital reach from click‐through rates, brand impressions, top‐line sales, and much more. These important deliverables should be defined as follows:

Click‐through rates (CTR) is the percentage of people that click a link posted on social media to take them to another website.

Brand impressions is the total number of people that can potentially, and actually, see the content that you post on social media.

Top‐line objectives are sales numbers that can come in the form of leads, a consumer contacting your employer, and the actual sale of products and services.

You’ll be challenged to establish immediate value, but in social media you also have the distinct advantage of being in control of the future benefits. For instance, social media provides ongoing brand equity and the opportunity to build a relationship with your employer’s customers.

Social media careers offer the most accurate snapshot of a brand. Social media provides more in‐depth metrics than any other advertising and marketing medium and accurately shows key sales numbers, unlike many traditional marketing outlets. In essence, social media provides the most data, and it shows brands exactly where they stand against competitors and with consumers and communities. This is one of the many reasons social media careers have become so valuable to many employers.

Social media careers are clearly different from traditional marketing jobs. What are the top reasons?

There’s no precedent in terms of expectations, standards, performance, or value‐driven results. Organizations commonly create jobs based on what other brands put together. They don’t necessarily know what to expect.

The person hiring often has limited (or no) practical experience with social media. As such, you can define your value more clearly.

Social media provides the strongest metrics out of any advertising and marketing media. A social media pro can interpret and deliver results since social media can be integrated into web analytics and tracking programs.

Social media has reinvented how to attract new customers. Traditional marketing spends its time finding, converting and keeping its base in that order. However, social media marketing flips this process upside down and focuses its time on keeping, converting and finding customers.

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